The BJP unit in Andhra Pradesh wants a new governor for the state while the Congress in Telangana says the governor’s conduct is not line with his office.

Governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh E S L Narasimhan has come under fire from the opposition Congress and the BJP in the two states for “completely surrendering” to Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

The Telangana unit of Congress has also threatened to lodge a complaint with the Centre and President Ramnath Kovind against his style of functioning.

Narasimhan who has been the governor of Andhra Pradesh since 2009 before he took the additional charge of Telangana in 2014, when the state was formed, had drawn the ire of BJP leaders in Andhra Pradesh for being “biased” towards Telangana and neglecting their state. The BJP has four seats in the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly.

Kambhampati Haribabu, BJP’s Andhra unit president and member of Parliament from Visakhapatnam, wrote to Union home minister Rajnath Singh last week seeking appointment of a new Governor exclusively for AP.

Telangana Congress leaders are fuming at Narasimhan for heaping praises on KCR and his nephew T Harish Rao, who is also the irrigation minister, during his two-day visit to Karimnagar and Adilabad districts over the weekend to inspect the progress of Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project on Godvari river.

Describing the project as an engineering marvel, the governor was all praise for KCR and Harish Rao for their commitment to complete the irrigation projects.

“When the chief minister gave a presentation on redesigning of irrigation projects of Telangana in Raj Bhavan last year, I was surprised at his vision and commitment. I was wondering whether I could call him as Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao or Kalala (of dreams) Chandrasekhar Rao. But after seeing this massive irrigation project, I want to call him Kaleshwaram Chandrasekhar Rao,” he said, referring to the Kaleshwaram irrigation project.

He also appreciated the dedication shown by the irrigation minister in completing the Kaleshwaram project on war footing. “He is not Harish Rao now, he is Kaleshwar Rao,” Narasimhan, a former IPS officer, said.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee working president Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka described the governor’s comments as cheap and political. “He is speaking like a TRS leader, rather than the head of the state. It is better he names Raj Bhavan as TRS Bhavan and call himself as Kalvakuntla Narasimhan,” he said.

“We may lodge a complaint with President Kovind against his style of functioning,” Vikramarka added.

Congress leaders also pointed out that the chief minister and his family members had only changed the name of Ambedkar Pranahita-Chevella irrigation project taken up by the previous Congress government to Kaleshwaram project. The original project cost of Rs 38,500 crore was revised to Rs 80,000 crore in the name of redesigning.

“Large scale irregularities took place in this process and we submitted a detailed memorandum to the governor in the past. But he conveniently ignored it and is now praising KCR and his family members as if it was a great achievement,” Vikramarka said.

He also alleged that Narasimhan had kept quiet when an MLA defected from the TDP into the TRS was inducted into the KCR cabinet, instead of disqualifying him. “When we recently went to him to represent on the atrocities being perpetrated against Dalits by ruling party leaders, the governor chided us and supported the TRS government,” he said.

The Congress is the main opposition party in Telangana with 14 seats in the 119-member House.

BJP MP from Secunderabad and former Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya also found fault with the governor for ignoring the contribution made by the Centre in supporting the Kaleshwaram and other irrigation projects in Telangana.